Darker Days Ahead
by Cydrose
Summary: Ginny Weasley is attacked by Death Eaters who escaped after the war. They wanted to lure out her hero boyfriend. When she is found at the gates of Hogwarts by a pair of Slytherins she finds comfort in an strange place. Ginny/Draco/Blaise some Ginny/Harry SLASH eventually.


_Author's note_: To anyone out there in fanfic world who is actually reading this, thank you. This is my first attempt at writing fanfiction and I'm honestly not sure if anyone will ever even see this, but I really enjoy Draco/Ginny/Blaise and I don't think they get enough love. I needed something to do to blow off steam and so this is it. Enjoy and PLEASE review

**Chapter 1**

The first thing Ginny Weasley realized was that she was being carried. The second was that she hurt, all over. And the third was that for the first time in over a week she felt safe.

"We'd better hurry up, she really doesn't look good," a boy spoke sounding out of breath. Ginny wasn't sure who he was talking too, no one responded, but she felt the jostling speed up. Whoever was holding her had started running.

Ginny opened her eyes just enough to see flashes. There were trees overhead. It was dark, but there were stars peeking through the dense branches. In the darkness the pale face of her rescuer stood out before she gave in to unconsciousness.

The next time she woke Ginny kept her eyes closed. She wasn't moving this time. She knew almost immediately that she was in the hospital wing of the castle. It had a certain smell of healing potions that stuck to the room constantly. She knew that smell well after the last few years.

It must still be night as she couldn't hear anyone in the room. Her family would all be here, milling around and worrying, if not for Madam Pomfrey who remained, as ever, strict on visiting hours. Ginny was glad for it. She wasn't ready yet to face her family, her friends or the questions they would surely ask. Questions she did not want to think about.

Slowly Ginny peeled open her eyes. Her head ached, she was sure that Madam Pomfrey would have left some water and a headache potion nearby. As she began to gingerly try sitting up there was a flurry of motion to her left and she felt someone cradle her back, helping her up. Immediately she cringed away from the contact and instinctively reached for her wand.

"Hey, hey, it's alright." A husky voice said in the darkness. "You're safe now. No one's going to hurt you."

She heard a muttered "_Lumos_" and the darkness revealed Blaise Zabini standing at her shoulder with his hands raised in front of him. He clearly wanted to make her feel safe. He was one of the last people she would have expected to sneak into the hospital wing and sit by her bedside, but Ginny knew the Slytherin eighth year didn't wish her any harm. He was well known to be from a Slytherin family who had never shown any inclination to join Riddle over the last few years. His mother was famously neutral in her politics.

Deciding that she could trust him for the moment Ginny allowed him to help her into a better sitting position and placed her wand back on the bedside table. She watched as he measured some green liquid into a tumbler and wordlessly handed it to her. She sniffed it skeptically before turning to him, questioningly.

He sighed. "It's just something for the headache. When Madam Pomfrey saw that there would be no use trying to make us leave she passed on instructions for what to do when you woke up. That's for your head and there's a dreamless sleep potion as well when you want it."

Ginny murmured her thanks and drank the potion down accepting the glass of water that Zabini wordlessly held out afterwards.

"Thank you for that, some of those healing potions are truly vile." Ginny met his eyes and saw him nod in acceptance.

"Why exactly are you here anyways?"

Zabini looked away and shrugged. Ginny waited, not taking her eyes off of him, she saw the discomfort in his face. "Well?" she asked.

"Well indeed," He replied with another sigh. "Honestly, with the condition you were in when, well… We didn't want you to wake up alone."

"That's the second time you've said we. Who's we?"

"Is it?"

"Well you said 'us' before I suppose. You said Madam Pomfrey tried to make 'us' leave…" Ginny trailed off. She was just now realizing the strangeness of this situation. After all that had happened in the past week, she was sitting in the dark at what had to be the early hours of the morning, and chatting with Zabini of all people.

"Well that would be me and Draco. We're the ones that found you."

It all came flooding back to her. Ginny had done an excellent job of blocking out the better part of her thoughts as she sat trying to shake off the last vestiges of sleep, but there was no fighting it now.

She had been having a perfectly lovely day in Hogsmeade with Harry. It was the first trip of the term and she had him all to herself for once. They had only been dating for a few months since the end of the war. Most of the summer, which Harry had spent at the Burrow with the Weasley family, had passed in a flurry of meetings and interviews and people crowding around the house. They had a few stolen moments to themselves, some time to get to know one another out of the shadow of war and responsibilities, but Ginny had been looking forward to going back to school and normalcy so that she and Harry could try for an actual relationship away from meddling mothers and newspaper reporters.

Harry, along with many seventh years including Ron and Hermione, had opted to return to Hogwarts and complete his final year. The school governors had decided that not much had been learned, in the traditional sense, during the reign of the Carrows and so no OWLS had been given. All of the eighth years would complete the curriculum now while the other students all played catch up to get things back on track.

So it had been a relief to push off her stacks of homework and finally get an entire day with her boyfriend's total attention. They had spent the morning enjoyably, just wandering in and out of stores, neither of them really looking for anything. He had excused himself for ten minutes to go get her a "surprise". She was sitting on a window ledge off of the main road smiling to herself and waiting for him when the stunning spell had hit.

The next thing she knew she was regaining consciousness in a dingy room without windows. She had been laid on bed, but not tied down. When she tried the door it was locked.

The next week had been her own personal hell. It seemed that the war was not as over as people had hoped. Everyone knew that some of the former death eaters had escaped, but no one thought they were organized enough to do anything. No one had thought that they would kidnap and torture the chosen one's girlfriend in an attempt to lure him out and get revenge for killing their master.

"I'm not going to insult you by asking if you're ok," Zabini began. Ginny managed to wrench herself out of her memories and turned her attention back to him. "Physically however, how are you?"

"Honestly?" Ginny asked. "I've felt worse I suppose. I almost wish I hurt more just so I would have something to distract myself with."

"Well, it has been three days. Pomfrey's had a bit of time to fix you up."

"Three days?" Ginny yelped. She had thought it was the same night she was found. "If I've been unconscious for three days my family must be going crazy. You've been here, have you seen them, how is Mum taking it?"

Zabini smiled slightly, so quickly she would have missed it if she hadn't been looking at him. "Your mum is a force to be reckoned with," he chuckled. "Everyone has been in and out taking turns sitting with you. McGonagall assured everyone that you would be fine once you were stable. They were keeping you out so that you would heal without exhausting yourself."

Ginny's brow furrowed instantly. "They kept me knocked out on purpose?" her voice was rising dangerously. "They kept me out for three days? How dare they!" Ginny was already moving to get out of bed and find someone to take out her anger on.

Blaise laid a hand on her shoulder. She saw the worry in his eyes.

"How bad was it?"

"Well, your hands were smashed." Blaise said carefully, as if waiting for her to blow up. "They were in really bad shape so Pomfrey had to start from scratch and regrow everything. Do you know how painful it would have been to be awake while all of those little bones regrew?" She didn't say anything so he kept going. "You had a concussion and a broken nose, along with two black eyes. Not to mention the hypothermia from being dumped at the gates and left there for who knows how long."

"Fine! You're right. Everyone else obviously knows better than me how I should heal." Ginny had tears in her eyes now.

"Weasley, hey, come on." Blaise shifted onto the bed so that he could wrap an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him. "Things suck right now. I know. I know you must feel powerless and alone, but it _will_ be alright. I promise."

"How do you know?" her voice sounded small.

"I know everything" he replied breezily trying to keep things light.

He checked the windows and saw that light was starting to make its way over the horizon. "I should be going Weasley. Your family will be banging down the doors soon." He smiled at her as she rolled her eyes.

"Plus I need to go tell Draco you're awake."

"But, you'll come back right?" She hoped she didn't sound too hopeful.

"Of course I will." Zabini smiled at her. "But I'd rather not get trampled by a herd of wild Weasels. We'll be by later, once everything calms down a bit."


End file.
